The Promise of Deception
by DoomInAJar
Summary: Sick of hurting Valerie, Danny succumbs to her in a battle. The ghost hunter soon realizes revenge isn’t as sweet as she thought it was… Slight DxV ONESHOT


**The Promise of Deception**- Sick of hurting Valerie, Danny succumbs to her in a battle. The ghost hunter soon realizes revenge isn't as sweet as she thought it was…Slight DxV ONESHOT

GinsengAndHoney reporting for duty! –cough- Ok, so maybe I'm just writing another story. ; But this _is_ another installment of my practices. But this time it's in first person, and not as humorous. Hope you like it! 8D

**Disclaimer:** I am not in any way profiting on this. –munches on ice cube-

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**The Promise of Deception**

By GinsengAndHoney

His movements are sluggish and his eyes are clouded and unfocused. I furrow my brow in confusion, darting from my typical hiding spot to a less noticeable one. I know he sees me, yet he hasn't acknowledged my presence – something is wrong.

The Ghost Boy hovers meekly above some foliage, seemingly gazing at the sparkling water fountain before him. It was ironic, really, that the boy I loved (though I would never admit it) and the boy I loathed (now that I would admit in a heartbeat) both visited the same place to think.

But somehow, watching Phantom's pained expression, it isn't him sitting there anymore.

Yes, it is still the same white haired boy with haunting green eyes that I've been hunting for months. There was no denying that. His appearance hadn't changed.

I almost wish it had.

The walls of my fury begin to crumble at the sight of his suffering, and I listlessly reach out for them. I hate this ghost! He destroyed my life; he deserved all the pain he got! I attempt to reassure myself, but the walls continue to tumble and a flood of unwanted words cascade into my mind.

"_You should be safe here until help comes…"_

He didn't mean that! He wants me dead! Look at what he did to my battle suit!

"_Look…I know you're angry, and I'm sorry about whatever happened to you. Not all ghosts are evil."_

He only said that to lure me into a false sense of security! _All _ghosts are evil!

"_Ok. Look, see? I'm putting the sac down. Right here. You don't wanna hurt me, and you don't wanna hurt this."_

…So why is this ghost so different?

"_Look, could you slow down for a moment? This IS the Ghost Zone, I AM a ghost. I can help us both!"_

Why does he even care?

"_I can move again! Thanks for the save back there."_

Why does a ghost thank the one who's out to destroy him?

"_That's because you never bothered to get to know one. Truce?"_

And why, with his colorless hair gently blowing in the wind and emerald eyes calmly fixated on the rippling of the water, does he look so…

…human?

I can't take this anymore. I'm losing my focus. This is the perfect opportunity to waste him once and for all, and here I am, sitting hopelessly behind an old oak tree. My hands are fisted tightly in the patches of grass, and I've clamped my eyes shut in an attempt to clear my head. My mind is on overload. This ghost. This _ghost_…

…is the reason I'm crying.

I roughly wipe my tears away, peeking out from behind the tree to see if Phantom is still there. I don't know what I was hoping for, but he's hasn't moved. The only difference is that he is now curled up in the air, and is shaking slightly.

I pretend I don't hear his soft cries.

This is all an act. It has to be. Everyone knows ghosts don't cry. They don't feel. They don't live. They don't love.

They merely exist.

That's what I've always been told. Ghosts were always tall tales used to scare young children into brushing their teeth or cleaning their room; I would have laughed if anyone tried to tell me otherwise. But the fact that I saw them before my very eyes made me believe in their existence. I needed solid proof. That's always been the type of girl I was; I have to see to believe.

So why am I blindly following what other people believe about ghosts?

I feel the bile rise up in my throat and I fight to subdue it, a sick realization hitting me like a ton of bricks

I don't know anything about the very thing I have devoted my life to hunting.

I have never stopped to think. Never done anything but destroy.

I finally hear Phantom for the first time.

"_You should be safe here until help comes…"_

Maybe he did want me safe. Maybe he wasn't lying.

"_Look…I know you're angry, and I'm sorry about whatever happened to you. Not all ghosts are evil."_

Maybe he was right all of those times.

"_Ok. Look, see? I'm putting the sac down. Right here. You don't wanna hurt me, and you don't wanna hurt this."_

I only hear what I want to hear. It's painfully obvious by his tone; I needed to be spoken to as a child for me to understand. Yet I still didn't listen.

"_Look, could you slow down for a moment? This IS the Ghost Zone, I AM a ghost. I can help us both!"_

…Who was I to pretend I knew about his kind?

"_I can move again! Thanks for the save back there."_

This ghost has never attacked me, and I know it.

"_That's because you never bothered to get to know one. Truce?"_

I understand now.

"Phantom."

He whips around instantaneously, giving me a look of pure terror on his tear streaked face. Those battle honed reflexes hadn't vanished. I suppose I could be partly blamed for that.

"V-Valerie! What are you doing here?" He shakily questions, attempting to erase the traces of his pain with a white gloved hand.

Apparently, he _hadn't_ known I was there. "I've been watching you, ghost."

"W-what do you -" He begins, but I cut him off, shooting a powerful blast of purple energy from my ecto gun. He swerves instinctively to the right and takes to the sky, but that doesn't phase me. I viciously activate my jet sled and pursue his black and white clad figure, launching my arsenal of weaponry at him all at once.

Phantom deflects the attacks with some purposefully aimed ectoplasmic beams, but a stray shot takes him by surprise, slamming straight into his chest. It looked like it had hurt.

I hear the strangled gasp as the air is forced out of his lungs, and his imminent descent to the ground begins. I set my sled to the most powerful setting and propel myself towards the falling figure, nearly wincing as he plummets to the ground with a resounding crash.

A pained groan alerts me to his location, and I stand over him with my ecto gun trained on his face. The whine of my fully charged weapon shakes him out of his haze, and he slowly lifts his head up to look me in the eyes.

"Shoot," he whispers, and I nearly drop my gun at the broken tone of his voice. "I can't do this anymore."

Time stops.

"Please, Valerie" he hopelessly pleads, his eyes clamped shut to await his demise. "I can't _hurt _you anymore."

I'm not moving.

"_Shoot_," Phantom begs, his voice growing stern through his soft coughing. I slowly shake my head.

"No."

If this were any other situation, I would have found his shocked expression amusing. "…Why?"

"Because, I've finally realized something," I reluctantly choked out. When did I start crying again? "And I don't like it."

I don't think he felt he needed to respond, because he simply stared at me in dead silence, awaiting my next words.

"I can't kill you…," I say in defeat, "Until I learn for myself whether you're evil or not. If I killed you just because I was _told_ you were evil, and you were actually good…that would make me wrong."

Silence. Somehow, I manage a smile. "And I don't like being wrong."

Phantom's eye visibly widen in utter disbelief. "You-"

"So from now on, _ghost_," I interrupt, "you'll just have to prove that you're what you say you are. You helped your case by not fighting me just now."

Well, there goes my motives for the attack. Phantom blinks cutely, his jaw dropping not-so-subtly at that piece of information.

I shake my head furiously. I did _not_ think the Ghost Boy was cute. "Well, now that we're on the same plane...truce?"

He gives me one of his dazzling smiles, and my cheeks color slightly.

Ok, so maybe he _was _cute. "Truce," he responds brightly, leaping from his place on the ground to stand before me. He holds out a gloved hand to seal our agreement.

I recoil, far too familiar with the damage that hand could do. With extreme caution, I finally calm and place my hand in his. I still hadn't come to a conclusion about his motives, after all.

"…But there is one thing."

Phantom releases my hand and looks at me expectantly. "Yeah?"

"You have a _lot_ of explaining to do," I roughly exclaim, and he laughs nervously.

"Yeah, I sorta figured that…," Phantom jokes, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

"And you have to promise me you will never go after Danny Fenton. I'm…planning to get back together with him now, since you and I are now on decent terms."

The Ghost Boy stiffens, and a guilty look overcomes his features. I stare at him in puzzlement. Why would mentioning Danny cause such a reaction?

"Actually, Val…," Phantom says, averting his gaze to the ground. "There's something I've been meaning to tell you."

Somehow, I already knew that I wasn't going to like what my new "comrade" had to tell me.

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**Author's Note:** Oh, I'm MEAN. XD These plotbunnies are killer! –giggles- Well, it is four in the morning and I'm so tired I can't even see straight. . So I'll leave you with this; a oneshot. Hehehehe! 

-GaH


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